A bank in Louisville.
An elementary school in Nashville.
Just two of the dozens of mass shootings in 2023 alone.
We’ve discussed gun violence in Steady many times. Rather than write something new today, we are sharing our May 2022 post from after the murder of 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
We feel it is an indictment of our nation's inability for action that our words from the past feel all too present.
--——-
Again.
Again.
Again.
The tears flow. Anger, a deep and pervasive anger, wracks the body, and the soul.
We knew there would be an “again,” but the pain is never lessened by the foreboding.
There is so much to say. And nothing left to say.
There is so much heartbreak and loss. So much loss. And trauma. And emptiness. And rage. And a knot of mixed emotions that propel us to a sadness that defies our attempts to rationalize these horrors. As they come, once again, in quick succession.
We like to think of ourselves as a “can-do” country. But we can’t do anything about this plague on our children? The fabric of communities torn apart?
We like to think we are a special country, and when it comes to gun violence, we are — for all the wrong reasons. For reasons that can be measured in graves, and empty desks in classrooms, and lives that will not reach their promise. Then there are the hundreds of thousands of children who have witnessed school shootings. And the millions who have had to imagine and prepare for horrors like these. No other country that matches us in wealth or privilege has this problem. Not even close.
How can this be acceptable? How can we do nothing? How can we choose to make this horrific pain part of our national birthright?
There are answers to all of these questions. But they don’t add up to any semblance of sense.
This is senseless. And all who condone it, all who offer meaningless “thoughts and prayers,” all who say the answer is more guns and fewer restrictions, are complicit in the carnage.
I do not think that is a majority of Americans. Not by a long shot. There is a lot more common sense and empathy in the population at large than in the elected leaders who offer fealty to the most extreme interpretations of the Second Amendment. There are measures that can make us safer. There are steps we can take.
There are no perfect answers, but to accept the unacceptable must never be acceptable.
Again (Again)
Just about every Sunday I take part in something rare. I live in California, but I get to go to Paris for an hour. Using Crowdcast, knitting teacher and wonderful person Franklin Habit offers his patrons "Live from the Workroom." I get to church Saturday evening, but for me the rich Paris gig is more what church should be. Until last Sunday late in the hour when some of the Americans spoiled it with comments about religion. Someone said it's a Christian country. Someone else said it's not a Christian country -- our founding fathers made sure of that!!! Huh? Are they standing on their heads? Do they really think the USA should be only for Christians? What is going on? Franklin is from Chicago and has emigrated to France, seeking eventual dual citizenship, but his followers are international. Of course he looked at the comments and said to stop, stop right now. And I am thinking we have some really trashy, uneducated people in this country. Peopl;e who thought Fox News was news. God help us! I am old and don't have kids. I just vote carefully and pray a lot.
I guess we can just keep our American flags at half staff, nary a week goes by without a mass shooting. This weekend a birthday party and here in KC a 16 year old shot because he knocked on the wrong door. Now the NRA has threatened the GOP to support them or they will STOP campaign funding. Our country has been held hostage for a violence agenda. Republican agenda's soak in that money to the point they are willing to arm themselves and their children for a Christmas photo, guaranteed funding for themselves. Capitolisum needs to learn the word integrity. I feel pathetically inadequate when I see a flag at full staff because I know it will not be there for long, maybe a day or two.